The ousted prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja should resign over the audio leaks.
“If they had a little shame, they would have resigned after their audio leaks. However, since they are not resigning, we will have to force them out,” the PTI chairman said while addressing a ceremony at GC College in Lahore.
Imran Khan said the audio leaks had made it apparent that CEC Raja was a “servant of the Sharif household”. In the audio leaks, “Nawaz is telling him [CEC] who should be disqualified and when to hold elections,” the former premier said. After the audio leaks, the CEC should resign if he has even an ounce of shame, he said. “But he doesn’t [have any shame], so we will have to make him resign,” he said.
In his speech, Imran also alleged that the CEC had blocked the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) on the instructions of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari. “I kept on trying to introduce EVMs for three years […] But, this man, on the instructions of Nawaz and Zardari, who rely on false votes, did not allow EVMs,” he claimed.
Turning his guns on Maryam, the PTI chief referred to one of the audio recordings purportedly featuring a conversation between PM Shehbaz and an unidentified official about the possibility of facilitating the import of Indian machinery for a power project that was linked to the PML-N vice president’s son-in-law.
Lambasting the PML-N, particularly PM Shehbaz, Imran said that his government had ended trade ties with India after New Delhi had revoked occupied Kashmir’s special autonomy in August 2019. “There are still no ties, but Maryam’s son-in-law [intends] to procure machinery from India,” Imran continued, adding, “And what is prime minister cherry blossom’s response? He suggests that they bring the machinery via another country instead of telling them not to import it at all.”
He further claimed that PM Shehbaz had also assured Maryam’s son-in-law that he would not face any obstacles in constructing a grid station worth Rs700 million at one of his housing societies. “He was told that the grid station would be “financed by money from the Pakistani taxpayers,” the PTI chief claimed.
He continued that in the coming days, there would be more “episodes” in audio leaks saga. “I am hearing that a [recording] will surface where Maryam will tell abba jee [Nawaz] that the election commission has said they will disqualify Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case and that there is no need to worry,” he said. “This is the [state of the] election commission.”
Imran said that the country’s “biggest fraudster” has returned to Pakistan, in an apparent jab at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar. “When the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) asked him [Dar] how he got all this money when his father was simply a bicycle shop owner, he boarded the prime minister’s plane and fled the country with the excuse that he was going to seek medical treatment,” Imran said, while claiming that the former finance minister was retuning under “a deal”.
Imran also said that “there is more that will be revealed in the audio leaks” and asked the audience to “wait for the coming episodes”.
Moving on, the former premier said that the PTI government negotiated with Russia to strike a deal on importing cheap oil and wheat, whereas, the incumbent rulers are in power just to “plunder money and move it abroad”, with no plans for relief for the people.
In a separate event in the city, the PTI chairman claimed that 60% of the federal cabinet’s members are facing corruption cases and that the country’s “biggest dacoits” have now become the rulers. Imran said that the PTI government was removed from power under the guise of inflation, however, currently, inflation had increased by 50%.
“I have declared jihad against these thieves,” added Imran as he asked “everyone to prepare themselves”. “As long as I am alive, I will fight them and God willing, I will win,” he vowed. Imran said Maryam considers herself above law and is free to do whatever she wants. Addressing a traders convention in Lahore, the former PM said that his government was toppled by giving up to Rs25 million to each lawmaker, adding that the government of thieves stole 1100 billion.
